1515 
Ghe  RURAL  NEW-YORKER 
Little  Talks  on  Manuring 
Would  you-  advise  putting  ashes  now  on  ground  to 
be  plowed  for  corn  next  Spring?  w.  H. 
Western  New  York. 
NO,  we  much  prefer  to  put  ashes,  fertilizer  and 
lime  after  plowing.  We  should  plow  in  the 
Spring,  then  either  broadcast  the  ashes  or  use  them 
in  the  hill. 
LIME  AND  MUCK. — One  place  in  which  it  might 
pay  to  put  lime  on  top  of  the  ground  is  the  fol¬ 
lowing  : 
A  reader  in  Massachusetts  says  he  has  a  piece  of 
light  soil  near  a  swamp  or  pond  hole.  During  the 
Winter  he  wants  to  dig  the  black  soil  or  muck  out 
of  this  pond  bole  and  spread  it  on  the  lighter  land. 
He  thinks  this  plowed  under  will  make  a  good  pre¬ 
paration  for  bush  fruits.  Generally  speaking  it 
does  not  pay  to  use  this  black  soil  unless  it.  con  bo 
well  limed  or  fermented  before  plowing  it  under. 
A  good  way  is  to  make  a  pile  of  the  muck  with 
lime  and  a  little  stable  manure  worked  in  with  it. 
Fermentation  will  start  in  and  in  the  Spring  the 
muck  will  be  in  very  much  better  condition  for 
working  under.  If  this  is  not  possible  the  muck 
may  he  hauled  out  dur¬ 
ing  the  W  i  n  t  e  r  an  d 
spread  on  the  land. 
Then  in  the  Spring  a 
good  dressing  of  lime  may 
he  put  over  it,  and  the 
whole  thing  plowed  un¬ 
der.  Generally  it  is 
much  better  to  use  lime 
after  plowing,  but  in  this 
case  the  lime  and  muck 
would  be  put  down  un¬ 
der  ground  together. 
WHEN  TO  H  A  IT  L 
O  IT  T  Ml ANU  It E. — In 
former  years  we  found  a 
number  of  good  farmers 
who  followed  the  plan  of 
hauling  out  the  year’s 
accumulation  of  manure 
during  late  Summer  and 
Fall.  With  the  rotation 
they  were  following  this 
was  the  best  season  of 
the  year  for  doing  the 
work.  They  usually  ran 
a  five-part  rotation.  Po¬ 
tatoes  heavily  fertilized 
were  followed  by  wheat 
or  rye  and  grass.  Clover 
was  seeded  on  grass  in 
Spring.  The  wheat 
cut  the  second  sea- 
and  then  the  grass 
cut  for  two  years, 
the  second  year 
accumula- 
nure  must  be  hauled  out  at  one  time,  but  the  gain 
in  plant  food  and  in  effect  upon  the  soil  will  be 
considerable. 
MANURE  USED  ON  SOD. — One  of  our  readers 
says  that  he  has  had  an  argument  with  a  neighbor 
about  plowing  under  old  sod.  This  man  claims 
that  if  be  plows  under  good  sod  and  adds  lime  lie 
will  have  just  as  good  returns  as  if  he  used  ma¬ 
nure.  The  neighbor  claims  that  a  coaling  of  ma¬ 
nure  on  the  sod  will  more  than  pay  for  itself,  and 
that  it  always  pays  to  put  at  least  a  little  manure 
on  such  an  old  sod.  Who  is  right? 
The  neighbor!  This  has  be6n  tried  a  good  many 
times,  both  by  practical  farmers  and  scientific  men 
and  it  seems  to  he  demonstrated  that  a  small 
amount  of  manure  plowed  under  with  such  a  sod 
pays  well.  The  theory  of  it  is  about  as  follows: 
The  sod  contains  a  good  deal  of  organic  matter, 
but,  especially  if  this  is  an  old  sod,  which  has  not 
been  plowed  for  a  good  many  years,  the  plant  food 
is  not  readily  available  and  must  be  well  rotted 
before  it.  will  produce  good  crops.  The  lime  will 
help  by  increasing  fermentation,  hut  a  small  amount 
of  manure,  and  especially  old,  well-rotted  manure 
terest.  The  bank  made  the  requirement  that  one- 
half  of  the  gross  proceeds  from  the  sale  of  milk 
and  butter  from  these  five  cows  should  bo  applied 
on  the  note.  In  order  to  safeguard  against  any  loss 
the  15  farmers  who  took  these  cows  organized  a 
mutual  insurance  association.  This  was  to  run  for 
six  mouths  following  the  receipt  of  cattle.  At  the 
end  of  this  six  months  only  one  cow  had  been  lost, 
and  this  loss  was  pro-rated  among  all  the  owners. 
At  the  end  of  the  six  months  these  people  had  paid 
about  one-third  of  the  entire  cost  of  the  cows.  The 
cows  were  divided  as  equally  as  possible  into  these 
herds,  and  then  selection  was  made  by  lot.  In  the 
same  way  this  Chamber  of  Commerce,  working 
through  the  hank,  has  acquired  $1,000  as  a  perman¬ 
ent  fund  for  interesting  the  boys  and  girls  in  pure¬ 
bred  pigs.  Of  course  no  one  will  accuse  this  Cham¬ 
ber  of  Commerce  or  the  banks  Of  doing  this  work 
entirely  from  a  philanthropic  motive.  They  simply 
understand  what  all  business  men  must  understand 
in  time,  that  no  town  can  prosper  unless  the  far¬ 
mers  who  live  around  it  also  prosper.  They  further 
find  that  one  great  reason  why  farmers  do  not 
prosper  is  that  they  do  not  have  a  fair  chance  to 
obtain  financial  credit. 
When  these  farmers  can 
be  helped  to  such  a  cre¬ 
dit  they  will  improve 
their  own  condition,  and 
in  that  way  build  up  and 
i  m  p  rove  their  towns. 
These  tilings  should  be 
great  object,  lessons  to 
the  people  in  many  towns 
who  spend  most  of  their 
time  “knocking”  or  sneer¬ 
ing  at  the  farmers  who 
live  nearby,  when  their 
very  prosperity  depends 
on  doing  the  other  thing. 
Best  White  “Rock”  ever  trap-nested  at  Storrs.  274  eggs 
in  one  year.  Fig.  590 
Best  “Red”  ever  at  Storrs. 
260  eggs  in  one  year.  Fig.  591 
I 
the 
was 
son 
was 
After 
each 
season’s 
White  Leghorn  286  eggs. 
at  Storrs. 
tiou  of  manure  w  a  s 
hauled  out  on  the  sod, 
scattered  freely  and  left 
there  through  the  Sum¬ 
mer  and  Fall  to  be 
plowed  under  in  Spring 
for  corn.  These  m  e  n 
claimed  that  m  a  n  u  r  e 
handled  in  that  way  and 
left  on  top  of  the  ground  suffered  practically  no  loss. 
Of  late  the  scientific  men  have  been  studying  this 
matter,  and  they  seem  to  agree  that  there  is  con¬ 
siderable  loss  from  the  manure  when  it  is  left  on 
top  of  the  ground  in  this  way.  This  seems  to  be 
especially  true  in  a  dry  windy  season.  Under  these 
conditions  a  considerable  part  of  ammonia  rises 
from  such  manure  and  is  lost.  Tn  a  wet  season  the 
loss  is  not  so  great,  as  the  rain  washes  the  avail¬ 
able  ammonia  out  of  the  manure  and  carries  it 
down  into  the  ground,  where  it.  is  taken  up  by  llie 
grass  roots.  This  theory  seems  to  be  well  sus¬ 
tained  by  the  facts.  It  is  the  custom  of  many 
farmers  to  haul  manure  every  day,  especially  dur¬ 
ing  the  Winter.  Hauling  manure  in  Summer  would 
result  in  considerable  loss  unless  it  is  promptly 
plowed  into  the  ground.  In  Winter  the  loss  is  not 
so  great,  as  the  weather  is  cooler  and  live  rain  or 
melting  snow  carries  most  of  the  available  plant 
food  down  into  (he  ground  promptly.  Farmers  now* 
understand  that  most  of  the  potash  in  the  manure 
is  contained  in  the  liquid,  and  they  also  under¬ 
stand  that  well-composted  manure  is  valuable  out¬ 
side  of  its  actual  plant  food  for  the  bacteria  which 
it  contains.  The  tendency  therefore  seems  to  he 
to  go  back  to  the  old  plan  of  composting  the  ma¬ 
nure  under  shelter,  or  keeping  it  in  a  pit  where 
the  liquids  can  be  mixed  with  it.  This  takes  more 
time  and  gives  trouble  in  the  Spring  where  all  ma- 
Highest  record  ever  made 
Fig.  592 
Best  Wyandotte  at  Storrs. 
281  eggs  in  one  year.  Fig.  593 
plowed  under  with  the  sod  serves  a  double  pur¬ 
pose.  It  not  only  adds  available  plant  food,  but 
the  bacteria  in  such  manure  work  through,  the 
old  sod  and  help  to  break  it  up.  This  action  might 
be  compared  somewhat  to  the  work  of  yeast  in 
bread-making.  Old  manure  is  full  of  bacteria  and 
they  are  of  great  service  when  plowed  in  with  the 
old  sod.  Thus  we  think  the  neighbor  is  right,  and 
it  is  always  a  wise  thing  whenever  possible  to 
spread  even  a  small  quantity  of  old  manure  on  the 
sod  when  it  is  plowed  under. 
At 
Business  Men  and  Farmers 
through  the  South  and  West  there  has  been 
great  development  in  the  relations  between 
bankers  and  business  men  and  farmers.  Much  has 
been  said  about  the  efforts  made  to  improve  dairy 
conditions  through  cooperative  work  between  city 
and  country.  All  sorts  of  plans  are  followed.  Here 
is  one  worked  out  at  Wichita  Falls,  Texas.  The 
Chamber  of  Commerce  in  this  town  undertook  to 
locate  good  cows  with  nearby  farmers.  The  local 
banks  financed  a  scheme  for  bringing  in  dairy  cat¬ 
tle.  The  first  importation  was  75  high-grade  Hol- 
steius  from  Wisconsin.  These  cows  were  divided 
into  herds  of  five  eaclv,  and  each  herd  was  given 
to  a  selected  country  family.  The  banks  were  pro¬ 
tected  by  notes  running  for  two  years  at  8%  in- 
Retail  Sale  of 
Barreled  Apples 
N  this  region  of  large 
apple  production  most 
of  the  growers  feel  that 
they  cannot  spare  t  h  e 
time  to  pay  much  atten¬ 
tion  to  the  retail  busi¬ 
ness,  especially  as  it  will 
mean  some  extra  work  in 
the  picking  season.  Such 
requests  for  the  sale  of 
single  barrels  as  come 
without  asking  are  han¬ 
dled  in  different  ways  by 
the  various  growers.  One 
man.  not  a  grower,  tried 
to  build  up  a  retail  trade 
a  few  years  ago,  but  did 
not  make  a  great  suc¬ 
cess,  because  lie  did  not 
pack  the  fruit  he  sold. 
Some  barrels  gave  great 
satisfaction. 
Anyone  who  has  pack¬ 
ed  many  apples  knows 
that  sometimes  the  fruit 
runs  better  than  others, 
and  most  of  the  larger  growers  here  make  a  prac¬ 
tice  of  putting  some  special  mark  on  a  few  barrels 
<.f  this  class  and  using  them  to  fill  retail  orders. 
Such  barrels  are  either  “Fancy”  or  extra  good  “A” 
grade,  and  deserve  to  sell  above  the  prevailing 
wholesale  market.  To  the  extra  value  of  the  ap¬ 
ples  we  must  add  something  for  the  extra  trouble 
of  handling  these  small  shipments.  It  is  often 
more  trouble  to  bill  out  one  barrel  of  apples  to  a 
customer  than  to  ship  a  carload.  There  is  also  the 
risk  of  selling  to  a  “kicker”  who  expects  to  pay 
wholesale  prices  for  Grade  A  and  get  a  combina¬ 
tion  of  New  York  State  quality  and  Northwestern 
appearance.  If  F.  M.  F.,  page  1MS>8,  paid  $•'.  per 
barrel  for  New  York  State  Grade  A  Ihildwin,  North¬ 
ern  Spy  or  Rhode  Island  Greenings,  delivered  at 
his  house  in  Iowa,  he  paid  less  than  the  apples  were 
worth.  We  plan  to  charge  about  $2  per  barrel  more 
than  we  expect  to  get  for  Grade  A  in  car  lots,  and 
we  do  not  feel  that  it  much  more  than  pays  for  the 
extra  trouble.  Personally,  I  should  not  care  to  sell 
any  single  barrel  of  Grade  A  apples  for  less  than 
$4  f.o.b.  our  shipping  point.  A  smaller  price  would 
not  pay  for  the  extra  trouble.  alfked  c.  weed, 
Wayne  County.  N.  Y. 
Say  what  you  will  about  the’  modern  fashionable 
stocking,  there  never  was  one  more  serviceable  or  com¬ 
fortable  than  the  ones  grandmother  used  to  knit. 
